Glass House by Nico van der Meulen Architects

The one word that comes to mind when first seeing images of the Glass House by Nico van der Meulen Architects is: WOW. That best sums up this almost 27,000 square foot home located in Johannesburg, South Africa.

This modern mansion comes complete with an indoor pool, an outdoor pool, a gym, a garage for 12 cars, an art gallery, and a raised glass koi pond (although it’s more like an outdoor aquarium).

It doesn’t matter what direction you look to, the view is more jaw-dropping than the next, making it the perfect glamorous, light-filled space the homeowner’s desired.

The massive entryway features a stainless steel and glass staircase that hovers over a heated pond.

Folding frameless glass doors cover the length of this side of the house, opening it up to the outdoors. The indoor pool and bar instantly become part of the backyard landscape when the doors are open.

Hop from the bar to the pool!

The atrium between the family room and kitchen helps ventilate the home naturally.

The spiral stairs lead to the master bedroom.

Even though the master bathroom is made of glass, blinds can lower to create privacy while still allowing for ventilation and a view.

15 Comments

Danny on 02.26.2013 at 15:32 PM

This has to be one of the most offensive and gaudiest houses I have ever seen. What a monstrosity!! As an architect, its hard to look on such an example of vanity, excess, and sheer self indulgence. I would be ashamed to put my name on it.

konstantina on 02.27.2013 at 03:30 AM

Dave on 02.27.2013 at 09:24 AM

I agree– I figured that this was a ridiculous 80’s era “yuppie” house that has been retrofitted with some newer materials to modernize it. None of the pictures made me feel like calling it “home”. Feels very Vegas.

TrangleC on 02.27.2013 at 14:38 PM

The criticism expressed in the comments is not only harsh, but also short sighted. Everybody who thinks they can truly judge something like that, knows nothing.

I for example like it. It isn’t my favorite house ever or anything like that, but I like it. Not because I would like “self indulgent” and “gaudy” things and not because I would be a 80’s era yuppie, but because it reminds me of some of the buildings on the university campus I studied at. It invokes feelings of nostalgia and a memory of the excitement I felt back then when I tasted true independence for the first time in my life. It also reminds me of other things in other segments of my youth.

Art and architecture touches different people in different ways and beauty can be found in unexpected places.

If that is new to you I pity you because I doubt that you will ever amount to much as architects.
Post the links to articles someone wrote about the buildings you designed if you want to try to prove me wrong.

Otherwise you should consider that claiming to be an expert on something in order to make your opinion seem more important on the web is not always a good strategy.
If you guys really are architects, that makes your comments not just ignorant, but outright pathetic.

Danny on 02.27.2013 at 17:48 PM

Thank you so much for that rant TriangleC. I really needed the laugh. And I’m happy for you and the warm feelings this building triggered inside of you. Oh yeah, and I apologize for believing that a Bachelor’s degree, a Master’s degree, and 21 years of experience in architecture don’t match up to your definition of “expert”; something we never claimed to be if you want to be technical about it. If I only would have known that all it takes to judge a building, and all I really needed are: feelings and memories of my youth. I guess I am ignorant.

Your argument is very puzzling by the way. Suppose I were having a discussion with Ernest Hemingway and I said, “You think because you’re an award winning author you get to tell me that The DaVinci Code sucks? What makes you an expert? The DaVinci Code reminds me of my childhood when my mom and I used to play these puzzle games and she would have me try to figure them out. It was so much fun. I’m so sad that you can’t see the beauty in that book Ernest.”

Now, am I comparing myself to Ernest Hemingway….of course not. But in all of the arts, there are people who “know” about it and can intelligently discuss it. Being architects, I think we’re well qualified to judge. Being a child with memories does not.

TrangleC on 02.28.2013 at 04:34 AM

You can go on about this as long as you want, but the simple fact remains that architecture is art and art is about what it makes people feel and not about the judgments of self proclaimed experts.

I expected one of you guys (if an answer would come) to bring up examples to make what I have said about my personal connection to this particular piece of art overly subjective ans silly, but that was just an example. Like I said, art means different things to different people and that is the big problem self appointed critics of art have.

I’m not an architect but I am interested in it and have a consumer perspective on it and what I see from that perspective is a depressing tendency to play it safe. People order houses in traditional, well known styles. They want Mediterranean villas and Santa Barbara style villas and fake English country homes and Colonial style houses or fake French chateaus and all that McMansion stuff.

Normally that wouldn’t be a problem, if they would really, really like those styles, but from my personal experience with friends, family and business associates I got the strong feeling that all of them only bought houses like that and furnished them to look like from a catalog because they wanted to play it safe. They are afraid of looking like “new money” and like tasteless low class lottery winners, so they chose old looking stuff to surround themselves because old is safe and somehow tasteful by default.

I never got that, or to be more precise, I never liked it.
I grew up in Germany, a whole country that operates on the “old is good” premise (when it comes to architecture and city planning) and doesn’t build sky scrapers because they would block the view on some moss covered medieval city wall or something like that.

The main building of the elementary school I went to was over 1000 years old, one of my aunts lived in a house that was 700 years old and I played in the ruins of a little castle that belonged to my family once but was bombed during the war because it had been turned into a military hospital for higher ranking officers.

The point being, I know “old” and I don’t like it very much. I don’t hate it, but I’m immunized against this in my eyes silly notion that old things are good by default.

Fact is, people in previous epochs build houses the way they did because they had to. Rooms had to be small because that made them easier to heat and because the building materials weren’t strong enough to allow for wide, unsupported ceilings.
Wallpapers were pretty much a necessity and so were squeaky wooden floors, two things I don’t like very much that are considered “good taste” by the safe players.

I’m pretty sure, if 500 years ago they would have had concrete and steel and glass to build with as we do today, they would have used it and we would never have seen all this oh so stylish and distinguished “Victorian” and “Belle Epoch” and whatever kind of architecture that gets glorified so much today and imitated by people who are too lazy or too afraid to develop their own style.

Also, being (ethnically) German and aware of the history of my nation, I get squeamish when people start judging and classifying art. I’m not comparing you to the Nazis and I’m not even saying it is a slippery slope, but it is a thin line between basically calling a piece of art offensive and denying its right to exist.
It doesn’t appeal to you, OK. That is a pity but there is nothing wrong with that. You cannot however call it offensive and self indulgent when you don’t know what kinds of feelings it invokes in the people who build it, the people who wanted it to be built and those people who like to look at it.

TrangleC on 02.28.2013 at 13:29 PM

deetz on 03.26.2013 at 22:48 PM

Danny on 02.28.2013 at 13:57 PM

samaralala on 04.18.2013 at 10:50 AM

Excess excess excess….. OK, I see no expense spared but I don’t see homely feeling to this house. It looks more like a recreational center than a home. I bet the owner is a single male who just wants to impress impress. I would not want to hung around this guy!

Art lover on 08.09.2013 at 06:00 AM

Problem with people who think they have answers to every problem of this world is that they criticize without applying their minds. For those of you who don’t see the homely feeling you are right. A little education about a house being a home, walls don’t make a home but people’s character and behaviour. You would know that if you had the spirit of ubuntu…out!!